When Cal first made his appearance in the Paladin League series, I knew very little about him. He was the team’s new medic, and that was all I had.
Then I needed to describe him—and there it was. An amateur-looking tattoo on the inside of his left forearm. I didn’t plan it. It just showed up. I paused, curious, but I was focused on other characters and let it slip past.
Then came Lurch’s story. And again, that same tattoo was mentioned. When something gets called out twice, I have to believe something’s going on there. I wondered why he kept it. He could’ve had it removed. He could’ve buried it under something bigger, more polished. But he didn’t.
Information wasn’t forthcoming. Cal wasn’t ready to explain himself. But now I knew something was there—I just needed to unearth it.
As Cal took up more “screen time” in the series, the details began to surface. He got the tattoo on impulse, shortly after he enlisted. It wasn’t planned, wasn’t pretty. But it mattered. He keeps it as a reminder that impulsive actions have consequences.
Which, of course, started me asking questions. What impulsive actions are you talking about Cal?
The tattoo is a symbol of something. He gave me easy answers first, evaded any follow-up questions, and was cagey as hell. I learned about his relationship with his heroine that crashed and burned, but that felt like one of his easier answers. Not the root cause, especially since he got the tattoo more than a decade before he met her.
Now I'm working on his book. I needed that information in order to know him well enough to write him. I pressed a little harder.
I got the answer. It's something that changed him and changed the trajectory of his life.
The tattoo marks that moment for him. No one else knows what it means or why he's kept it. He only gives the easy answers if someone is brave enough to ask. His other tattoos are precise and done by skilled ink artists, but Cal still keeps the dagger.
Because it's his truth that he feels he needs to carry. You can get all the answers in July 2026 when Wicked Temptation is released.
